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Hero For Christ

Children of Men



March 8, 2007

Children of Men is by far the best movie I've seen in recent years. I've been a fan of director Alfonso Cuarón since his "Y Tu Mama Tambien" but this film shows real advances in vision and artistry even since then. It's a film I would unhesitatingly recommend to anyone who cares at all about humanity.

As with "Y Tu Mama," Cuarón takes what seems like a shopworn premise (in that case, a buddy-comedy/road-trip/sex-farce, in this case a post-apocalyptic chase-thriller) and not only adds some unexpected twists at the surface level, but also a wealth of depth at the very edge of consciousness. The film is a feast of visual details and allusions, many of which flicker only briefly across the screen without calling notice to themselves.

What makes the world of Cuarón's imagination seem so real is not only that there's very little futuristic about it, but also that all the elements are merely amplifications of things that are already happening. The central trope of Britain maintaining itself as an island of stability at the cost of fascism and brutal anti-immigrationism has echoes of Europe's real-life declining fertility and ambivalence about sustaining population growth through immigration. In addition, given the director's nationality, I'm sure the immigration debate in the United States (with reference to Mexico) is also not far from his mind. Later, the disturbing scenes of the refugee camp deliberately reference not only the Holocaust, but also Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

In the end, what I found most striking about this often grim film was how many of the major and minor characters within it were not only willing, but eager to risk or even lose their lives merely to help a stranger and her unborn child survive. In a world with no other hopes for a future, the chance to support even so uncertain a tomorrow was seen as an opportunity rather than an imposition.

To summarize: Not only a good film, a humane film and a compassionate film, but also an important film; a experience not only of visual depth, but also of emotional and intellectual depth as well.
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